Thursday, 11 May 2017

Some answers

Following on from my last post, a fair few people have
suggested to me that it’s all very well to point out problems but what about
solutions?

My view is best described in short hand as follows:

That the current electoral system is a hostage to a variety
of vested interests and, unless the system itself can mitigate against these
then we will be unable to move forward in a rational way leaving ourselves open
to disenchantment, disengagement from the process and, ultimately, the rise of
extreme voices that appeal to those left behind.

That process is already well underway in both the UK and the
USA and has flared up across the Western World (Greece springs to mind but
almost every European country has a version of this happening right now). In
the UK with Brexit and the USA with Trump it could be said that the process has
delivered victories based on the premise of ‘outsiders’ gaming the system.
Whilst France dodged that bullet for now, I maintain that the status quo will
mean that it is only a matter of time before the next shock.

Too often we accept that change of the nature I suggest is
impossible. History tells us otherwise. Were it not so I would be toiling for a
feudal lord. The process by which the Western world reached this point is
littered with painful (and sometime) cataclysmic conflict yet we find
ourselves, for all our disenchantment, in a world that is safer and more
prosperous than ever before.

Any solutions will start at a low level and take years to
achieve. In this accelerated age that may be hard to accept. Nonetheless I
believe everything I suggest is possible eventually. Ultimately, the reason the
democratic system endures is because it carries the majority with it. It
therefore follows that if the majority will something, it will eventually
happen.

So below are some suggestions as to what represents progress.
These are, by their nature, fanciful in the current climate and wide brush
strokes. They are easy to take apart as they are, by their very nature
aspirational. The extremely likely victory for the Conservatives on June 8th
makes them a wish list but, should Corbyn defy the polls I would suggest a similar
resistance to everything below bar the odd detail. That is a great part of the
problem.

Electoral reform

The current system is, by any rational analysis, not
democratic. A majority of votes cast hold no weight in the final result and too
many are disenfranchised through the back door. Little surprise that a younger,
more individualistic, demographic is increasingly switched off from the process.

First past the post favours the two main parties, it
excludes independent voices from democracy at all levels, in particular the
national stage, and reduces the political process to a he said / she said
dichotomy where party principle trumps rational sense and good government. It
is out of date.

The tragedy of this situation is that Blair’s first
government had the prize in its hands but, swept away by the majority delivered
under FPTP, imagined a social democratic future where coalition was not
necessary. The next chance will be some time coming but needs to be taken if we
are to live in a truly modern democracy.

Electoral Spending Reform

Money talks, bullshit walks. The second pillar of a corrupt system.
All the major parties are in thrall to their donors and we all know it. Yet it
persists. For truly independent voices to flourish the rules on spending in
election cycles need radical and brutal reform. I would suggest caps on
spending per parliamentary seat, junking party political broadcasts (which
exclude ‘minority’ parties and independent voices) and caps on online
advertising and display advertising spends, all funded through government. No
outside money should be permitted in election material or campaigning. Independent candidates would be offered a
state fund for their campaigning in line with local caps for established
parties. Fanciful? Maybe, but a way to ensure that a plurality of voices is
heard. Those caps should be low, no election cycle needs endless billboards proffering
half-truths, attack ads or major advertising agencies getting fat.

Legislation on any constitutional change

Whatever your view on Brexit there is no doubt that in
execution the process was flawed. When golf clubs have more precise and
detailed rulings on changes to membership than the nation’s parliament on major
constitutional change there is something wrong. Any plebiscite on major
constitutional change should be ratified by 51% of the electorate, not the
votes cast and only be advisory and subject to debate, further proposal and a
second plebiscite unless ratified by 66.67% of the electorate. The assumption
being that no vote is a vote for the status quo. No solution is perfect but
that seems a much better approach to me. That may seem tedious and plenty of
Leavers will no doubt howl that this is partiality but I would suggest a
similar bar on any future vote to rejoin the EU. This is not about a single
issue but rather about a political society where change is accepted on a real majority
scale rather than a (numeric) minority of the public.

The dismantling of the current party system

Party whips, three-line whip votes, towing the party line.
These are anachronisms in an age of Twitter, Faacebook and the transference of
individual opinion in real time. Hence the spectacular success of those
shouting about ‘cosy elites’ and ‘stitch ups’. We no longer live in a mass
voting bloc society, workers do not share the same concerns en masse. That is
the triumph of the post war consensus, a journey from basic rights to
individual concerns. A modern political system needs to understand that.

It seems no coincidence to me that the UK and USA labour
with a fractured political consensus maintained by minority (in the total electorate
sense) majorities whilst Germany, with an alternative political culture that
can sustain even coalition between its two opposite parties, has (thus far) managed
to see off the upstart challenge of the likes of AFD. Whilst the US legislature
has been hamstrung and deadlocked for a decade with entrenched opinion
delivering paralysis and the UK has fiddled whilst UKIP burn, other political
systems offer hope that moderation and consensus can deliver progress to the
majority.

To achieve that the progressive forces in UK politics need
to accept that the age of entrenchment is over. Shared ideas and beliefs trump
rosette colour. I do not necessarily remove all Conservatives from this
equation, there are no doubt some Conservative MPs and supporters deeply
worried by Theresa May’s direction of travel but boxed in by the reality that
any olive branch to ‘the other side’ will be placed in a narrative of ‘defection’.

Those of a political mind must stop thinking of party and
start thinking of policy.